Kathleen Anderson's Summer Solstice Ritual (link is dead)
by Kathleen Anderson
This ritual is about coming into fullness. The climax. The time on the wheel represents maturity, the stage of the mother. Flowers should be in full bloom. The element associated here is fire, and passion and ecstasy are part of the ritual.
Supplies:
Ø red for the altar
Ø a red candle for each person present
Ø red flowers
Ø a basin filled with water and fragrance (we used scented oil and flower petals)
Ø Tools for calling the directions
Ø a cauldron filled almost to the top with sand (to seat the candles)
Ø smudge for cleansing (pass it around)
Ø incense
Ø drums and instruments
Ø and light for fire
Casting the circle:
Air: Turn to the East, arms raised, fingers spread. Say:
"Breath of Goddess, Blow.
Be wind in our sails.
Be divine mind in ours.
Be here in this hour.
Blessed Be!"
Fire: Turn to the South, arms raised, hands making fists, say:
"Energy of Goddess, Empower!
Be hot within us.
Be passion in our hearts.
Be here in this hour.
Blessed Be!"
Water: Turn to the west, arms outstretched, hands cupped, say:
"Living Waters, blood of Goddess, Flow!
Your heartbeat pulses within us.
Be dreams and feelings flowing forth.
Be here in this hour.
Blessed be!"
Earth: Turn to the North, arms outstretched, palms down, say:
"Body of Goddess, Standing stones-dancing bones!
Be our strength.
Be sacred ground firm under our feet.
Be here in this hour.
Blessed Be!"
Spirit: Turn to the center, hand in hand, thumbs pointing left, say:
"From the ground, from the stone,
From the windswept sky
From the flaming fire's cone,
From the flowing water's sigh,
Our spirits call, our voices sing
Of Elemental Power.
Come, Aid us in our circle
Be here in this hour.
The Circle is cast,
We are between the worlds
At the Goddess' feet.
Where magic is real,
All becomes 0ne
And beginnings and endings meet.
Blessed Be!"
Anointing with oil: Stand before the altar.
Anoint foreheads and say,
"Open my mind and inner eyes to greater truths."
Anoint hearts and say:
"Cleanse my heart from all impurity."
Anoint hands, and say:
"Let our hands be lifted up in praise, and set to the work of the Goddess."
Anoint feet, and say:
"Guide our feet on the paths of growth and enlightenment."
This will not be a quiet circle. This is an exuberant season and it's PARTY TIME! Invoke your wild woman! We will have a power ritual, to remind us that this season's emphasis is on fulfillment, but we will also do a banishing as a first reminder of the coming dark season. Think carefully of what you will ask of the Mother tonight; she is at her highest point of giving.
Invocation: Charge of the Goddess. Soft drumming accompanies. Say:
"This is the fullness of summer, the reign of the Mother Goddess. Tonight all wants are fulfilled, all wishes come true, and love reaches full passion. Women everywhere are gathered together to invoke the Goddess. Our many voices embrace her, to awaken her from the long sleep of patriarchy. Listen to her words: (Solstice Poem - with respect to Z. Budapest) I have slept for ten thousand years. Now I stretch and waken. They are calling, calling me, and my heart leaps to greet them. My forests my hair, the grasses my heavy eyelashes. They call me, and I waken. My body bedecked with a million flowers, And these many breasts of mine, the mountains joyfully rear their tips. I long to suckle my young. They are calling. They will know me! I want to embrace all the sad and lost. All the wrongs that have been done, to me and to my children. My hands shall doom them to death, and make them right I am the defender of every mother, as I am the defender of my holy self. Earth, Mother am I, the only one; life springs from me. I carry the seed of creation. And I awake!"
Chant:
"Gaia, Carry Us Home"
Drumming: This should start out as heartbeat and quicken slightly with each change in the meditation.
Meditation: We are going to do a color and fullness meditation. As soon as it ends I will take a hand near me and we will do a spiral dance. As we unwind it we'll gather in a circle. All women not drumming should take a posture of the five-pointed star. Keep eyes open and visualize or close them. Breathe! Feel the movement and heartbeat of the earth at Solstice, feel the rich black earth. Draw black into your body, through your feet, legs, vagina, abdomen, heart, chest, throat, and head. Feel it enter through your feet, travel through your body; feel its vastness and depth, let it exit through the crown. Feel the richness of the Mother Earth. Feel the color shift to red, see the pulsing of your blood, the movements of energy and passionate life. Feel your strength, the length of your muscles, the marrow and hardness of your bones. Now let the color lighten to a bright warm orange. Feel yourself bathed in energy and power. Feel your body rise in passion, in yearning, in ecstatic union with all that is. Now let the color brighten more to an active, vibrant yellow. This is the color of knowledge and power, of oomph, the bright understanding of things happening, and making them happen. Know yourself to be the cause, the agent of changes. Wash in yellow! Now let your mind's eye cool a bit and let the green grow and spread out from your heart. This is the color of sympathy and emotion, of growing and helping things to grow. Green is the color of healing. Feel the fertile green, where love takes root. Green shifts cooler now, to blue. Blue is the color of the sky, the water. It is the color of will, and peace, and the natural order. Let your will be in harmony, let your throat be filled with songs, and the words you need to say. Know that yours is the power to make real that which you imagine. Feel the color purple now, the color of psychic knowing. Let the winds whisper, the fire burn within, the waters of intuition flow, and the secrets be known to you. Know what you know, and be unafraid. Let all the colors swirl faster and faster about you and through you until they make a swirling white light, around you and in you. This is the color of the Goddess, of the great Divine one. You are part of Her, of all of it. Feel the patterns moving, the wheel is turning, turning, see the light of it, be en-light-en-ment.
Spiral Dance: Chanting:
"We are the music in everyone
We are the dance of the moon and the sun
We are the power in everyone
And we are the hope that will not die
And we are the turning of the tide.
Air I am,
Fire I am,
Water, Earth and Spirit I am."
(in counterpoint) This is a good time to raise a cone, if you are so inclined, but use/ground the energy before going on with the ritual or it will get very heavy, and everyone will start sitting down and feeling sluggish.
As you move back into one big circle each person should take a candle from the altar. Start by lighting the first candle. State your wish. Light candles from each other, going deosil (clockwise), one at a time. Now go around again, widdershins (counter-clockwise), and this time state a banishing, and blow your candle out.
When all candles are out, go back and light candles at the altar, saying,
"On this night, the Goddess grants all wishes.
Blessed be!"
Place candles in the cauldron sand and let them burn until it is time to go.
Feast, Dance, Talk, Make Things!
To Open circle: Turn to each direction in reverse order:
North say:
"Great Spirits of the North,
Spirits of Earth,
We thank you for your presence.
It is done.
Go if you wish, stay if you will.
Blessed Be!"
West say:
"Great Spirits of the West,
Spirits of Water,
We thank you for your presence.
It is done.
Go if you wish, stay if you will.
Blessed Be!"
South say:
"Great Spirits of the South,
Spirits of Fire,
We thank you for your presence.
It is done.
Go if you wish, stay if you will.
Blessed Be!"
East say:
"Great Spirits of the East,
Spirits of Air,
We thank you for your presence.
It is done.
Go if you wish, stay if you will.
Blessed Be!"
Turn to the center, join hands, say:
"By the Earth that is Her body,
The Air that is her breath,
By the Fire of Her bright spirit,
And the Waters of her living womb,
The Circle is open but unbroken.
(Drop hands.)
May the peace of the Goddess go in our hearts,
As we merry meet, merry part, and merry meet again.
Blessed Be!"
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